Hinduism, Followers of the Veda

1. What Is Hinduism?

A
Christian, visiting India from the West, would surely think it strange
if he or she was told by an Indian, "You are a follower of Jordanism."
Christianity, along with Judaism and Islam, hails from the region of the
Jordan river. But it is unlikely that Christians, Jews and Muslims
would like their faiths being lumped together under such an artificial,
unscriptural category as "Jordanism." Yet just this sort of thing was
done to the followers of the indigenous religions of India. The word
"Hinduism" is derived from the name of a river in present-day Pakistan,
the Sindhu (also known as the Indus). Beginning around 1000 AD, invading
armies from the Middle East called the place beyond the Sindhu
"Hindustan" and the people who lived there the "Hindus". (Due to the
invaders' language, the s was change to h.) In the centuries that
followed, the term "Hindu" became acceptable even to the Indians
themselves as a general designation for their different religious
traditions. But since the word Hindu is not found in the scriptures upon
which these traditions are based, it is quite inappropriate. The proper
term is vedic dharma; the next two paragraphs briefly explain each of
these words.

The word vedic refers to the teachings of the Vedic literatures. From
these literatures we learn that this universe, along with countless
others, was produced from the breath of Maha-Vishnu
some 155,250,000,000,000 years ago. The Lord's divine breath
simultaneously transmitted all the knowledge humankind requires to meet
the material needs and revive his dormant God consciousness of each
person. This knowledge is called Veda. Caturmukha (four-faced) Brahma,
the first created being within this universe, received Veda from Vishnu.
Brahma, acting as an obedient servant of the Supreme Lord, populated
the planetary systems with all species of life and imparted the Vedic
scriptures as the guide for spiritual and material progress. Veda is
thus traced to the very beginning of the cosmos.

Some of the most basic Vedic teachings seen within modern Hinduism are:

* Every living creature is an eternal soul covered by a material body.

* The souls bewildered by maya (the illusion of identifying the self
with the body) must reincarnate from body to body, life after life.

* To accept a material body means to suffer the fourfold pangs of birth, old age, disease, and death.

* Depending upon the quality of work
(karma) in the human form, a soul may take its next birth in a subhuman
species, the human species, a superhuman species, or may be freed from
birth and death altogether.

* Karma dedicated in sacrifice as directed by Vedic injunctions
elevates and liberates the soul. Dharma is the essential nature of the
Veda. The term dharma is translated as "duty," "virtue," "morality,"
"righteousness," or "religion," but no single English word conveys the
whole meaning of dharma. The Vedic sage Jaimini defined dharma as "a
good the nature of a command that leads to the attainment of the highest
good." Now, there are different opinions as to what the highest good is
that the Veda commands mankind to attain. These different opinions are
the basis of the multifarious kinds of religious worship seen today
within so-called Hinduism. From out of the gamut of Hindu piety, three
great religious traditions emerge: Smarta-brahmanism, Shiva-shaktaism,
and Vaishnavism. Each tradition is associated with one of the
tri-murtis, the three main deities of Vedic dharma: Brahma, Shiva, and
Vishnu.

The Smarta-brahmanas or hereditary priests preside over the religious
affairs of millions of ordinary Hindus. These priests conduct the
services for the different devatas (demigods) that bless common people
with material benedictions (wealth, family happiness, good health and so
on). The Smarta-brahmanas are grouped in gotras (families) that are
said to descend from Caturmukha Brahma. They uphold and defend the caste
system (jati-vyavastha) which determines a person's social position in
Hindu society. For a Smarta-brahmana, the main qualification of
brahmanism (priesthood) is birth in a brahmana-gotra.

The Saivites and the Shaktas worship Shiva and his feminine energy
Shakti, who is addressed by names like Devi, Durga, Parvati and Kali.
While Brahma is the lord of cosmic creation, Shiva is the lord of cosmic
devastation. Shakti is the goddess of the total material nature, or
prakriti. Because Shiva is very easily pleased, those who desire rapid
material advancement for little effort are especially interested in
worshiping him and Shakti. The worship of Ganesha and Muruga (Kartikeya)
is associated with Saivism, because they are both sons of Shiva. Also
associated with Saivism and Shaktaism are left-and right-hand tantra.

Vaishnavism is the worship of Vishnu, the controller of the sattva-guna,
the mode of goodness, by which everything is maintained. Brahma
controls rajo-guna, the mode of passion, and Shiva controls tamo-guna,
the mode of ignorance. Of these three states of material existence,
goodness is topmost. The universe is created and destroyed again and
again. These cycles of work by Brahma and Shiva are maintained eternally
by the goodness of Vishnu. The name Vishnu means "all-pervading." Lord
Vishnu dwells in the hearts of all beings as the Supersoul, as well as
within every atom. He is also the total form of the universe (visvarupa)
and the origin of Brahma and Shiva. Beyond the universe, Vishnu has His
own transcendental abode called Vaikuntha, the spiritual world. The
original and most intimate form of Vishnu is the all-attractive,
ever-youthful Sri Krishna. Lord Krishna, the eternal, omniscient, and
incomparably blissful Supreme Personality of Godhead, is the speaker of
the Bhagavad-gita, the most important text of the Hindu religion. The
Bhagavad-gita rejects caste by birth and any form of worship motivated
by material desire. Complete surrender to Krishna is said to surpass all
other commands of dharma in the Vedas (see {Bhagavad-gita 18.66}).
Surrender to Krishna delivers the soul from the cycle of repeated birth
and death (samsaracakra) and returns the soul back home, back to
Godhead.

2. What Is Vedanta?

The highest degree of Vedic education, traditionally reserved for
the sannyasis (renunciants), is mastery of the texts known as the
Upanisads. The Upanisads teach the philosophy of the Absolute Truth
(Brahman) to those seeking liberation from birth and death. Study of the
Upanisads is known as vedanta, "the conclusion of the Veda." The word
upanisad means "that which is learned by sitting close to the teacher."
The texts of the Upanisads are extremely difficult to fathom; they are
to be understood only under the close guidance of a spiritual master
(guru). Because the Upanisads contain many apparently contradictory
statements, the great sage Vyasadeva (also known as Vedavyasa,
Badarayana, or Dvaipayana) systematized the Upanisadic teachings in the
Vedanta-sutra, or Brahma-sutra. Vyasa's sutras are terse. Without a
fuller explanation, their meaning is difficult to grasp. In India there
are five main schools of vedanta, each established by an acarya
(founder) who explained the sutras in a bhasya (commentary).

Of the five schools, one, namely Adi Shankara's, is impersonalist.
Shankara taught that Brahman has no name, form nor personal
characteristics. Shankara's school is opposed by the four Vaishnava
sampradayas founded by Ramanuja, Madhva, Nimbarka, and Vishnusvami.
Unlike the impersonalist school, Vaishnava vedanta admits the validity
of Vedic statements that establish difference (bheda) within Brahman, as
well those that establish nondifference (abheda). Taking the bheda and
abheda statements together, the Vaishnava Vedantists distinguish between
three features of the one Vastu Brahman (Divine Substance):

* Vishnu as the Supreme Soul (Para Brahman).
* The individual self as the subordinate soul (Jiva Brahman).
* Matter as creative nature (Mahad Brahman). The philosophies of the
four Vaishnava sampradayas dispel the sense of mundane limitation
ordinarily associated with the word "person." Vishnu is accepted by all
schools of Vaishnava vedanta as the transcendental, unlimited
Purusottama (Supreme Person), while the individual souls and matter are
His conscious and unconscious energies (cidacid-shakti).
3. What Is Siddhanta?

Each Vedantist school is known for its siddhanta, or "essential
conclusion" about the relationships between God and the soul, the soul
and matter, matter and matter, matter and God, and the soul and souls.
Shankara's siddhanta is advaita, "nondifference" (everything is one;
therefore these five relationships are unreal). All the other siddhantas
support the reality of these relationships from various points of view.
Ramanuja's siddhanta is visistadvaita, "qualified nondifference."
Madhva's siddhanta is dvaita, "difference." Vishnusvami's siddhanta is
suddhadvaita, "purified nondifference." And Nimbarka's siddhanta is
dvaitaadvaita, "difference and identity."

The Bengali branch of Madhva's sampradaya is known as the
Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya Sampradaya, or the Chaitanya Sampradaya. In the
1700s this school presented Indian philosophers with a commentary on
Vedanta-sutra written by Baladeva Vidyabhushana that argued yet another
siddhanta. It is called acintya-bhedabheda-tattva, which means
"simultaneous, inconceivable oneness and difference." In recent years
this siddhanta has become known to people all over the world due to the
popularity of the books of His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami
Prabhupada. Acintya-bhedabheda philosophy maintains the same standpoint
of "difference" as Madhva's siddhanta on the fivefold relationship of
God to soul, soul to matter, matter to matter, matter to God, and soul
to soul. But acintyabhedabheda-tattva further teaches the doctrine of
shaktiparinamavada (the transformation of the Lord's shakti), in which
the origin of this fivefold differentiation is traced to the Lord's play
with His shakti, or energy. Because the souls and matter emanate from
the Lord, they are one in Him as His energy yet simultaneously distinct
from Him and one another. The oneness and difference of this fivefold
relationship is called acintya, or inconceivable, because, as Srila
Prabhupada writes in his purport to Bhagavad-gita 18.78, "Nothing is
different from the Supreme, but the Supreme is always different from
everything." As the transcendental origin and coordinator of His
energies, God is ever the inconceivable factor.

4. Shankara and Buddhism

Sometimes Shankara's advaita-vedanta commentary is presented in books
about Hinduism as if it were the original and only vedanta philosophy.
But in fact Shankara's philosophy is more akin to Buddhism than vedanta.
Buddhism is a nastika, or non-Vedic, religion. Before 600 AD, the time
of Shankara's appearance, most Vedantist scholars did not endorse a
doctrine of impersonalism. Evidence gathered from the writings of
pre-Shankara Buddhist scholars shows that their Vedantist contemporaries
were Purusa-vadins (purusa = "person", vadin = "philosopher").
Purusavadins taught that the goal of Vedanta philosophy is the
Mahapurusa (Greatest Person). Bhavya, an Indian Buddhist author who
lived centuries before Shankara, wrote in the Madhyamika-hrdaya-karika
that the Vedantists of his time were adherents of the doctrine of
bhedabheda (difference and nondifference). That Shankara borrowed
Buddhistic ideas was noted by the Buddhists themselves. A Buddhist
writer named Bhartrhari, a contemporary of Shankara, expressed some
surprise that although Shankara was a brahmana scholar of the Vedas, his
impersonal teachings resembled Buddhism.
This is admitted by the followers of Shankara themselves. Pandit Dr.
Rajmani Tigunait of the Himalayan Institute of Yoga is a present-day
exponent of advaita-vedanta; in his book, Seven Systems of Indian
Philosophy, he writes that the ideas of the Buddhist Sunyavada (voidist)
philosophers are very close to Shankara's. Shankara inserted into
Vedantic discourse the Buddhistic idea of ultimate emptiness,
substituting the Upanisadic word brahman ("the Absolute") for sunya
("the void"). Because Shankara argued that all names, forms, qualities,
activities and relationships are creations of maya (illusion), even
divine names and forms, his philosophy is called mayavada (the doctrine
of illusion).

However, to compare Brahman with the void is philosophically untenable.
The Vedanta-sutra defines Brahman, not Maya, as the cause of everything
(janmadyasya-yatah, Vedanta-sutra 1.1.2). How can that which lacks name,
form, quality, and activity be the cause of that which possesses these
features? Nil posse creari de nilo: "Nothing can be created out of
nothing." Mayavadi vedanta avoids the issue of causation by arguing that
the world, though empirically real, is ultimately a dream. But dreams
also have elaborate causes.

5. Differences Among the Four Vaishnava Sampradayas

The four Vaishnava sampradayas all agree that Vishnu is the cause, but
they explain His relationship with His creation differently. In
visistadvaita, the material world is said to be the body of Vishnu, the
Supreme Soul. But the dvaita school does not agree that matter is
connected to Vishnu as body is to soul, because Vishnu, God, is
transcendental to matter. The world of matter is full of misery, but
since Vedanta-sutra 1.1.12 defines God as anandamaya (abundantly
blissful), how can nonblissful matter be His body? The truth, according
to the dvaita school is that matter is ever separate from Vishnu but yet
is eternally dependent upon Vishnu; by God's will, says the dvaita
school, matter becomes the ingredient cause of the world. The
suddhadvaita school cannot agree with the dvaita school that matter is
the ingredient cause, because matter has no independent origin apart
from God. Matter is actually not different from God in the same way an
effect is not different from its cause, although there is an appearance
of difference. The example of the ocean and its waves is given by
suddhadvaita philosophers to illustrate their argument that the cause
(the ocean) is the same as the effect (the waves). The dvaitadvaita
school agrees that God is both the cause and effect but is dissatisfied
with the suddhadvaita school's standpoint that there is really no
difference between God and the world. The dvaitadvaita school says that
God is neither one with nor different from the world --He is both. A
snake, the dvaitadvaita school argues, can neither be said to have a
coiled form nor a straight form. It has both forms. Similarly, God's
"coiled form" is His transcendental nonmaterial aspect, and His
"straight form" is His mundane aspect. But this explanation is not
without problems. If God's personal nature is eternity, knowledge, and
bliss, how can the material world, which is temporary, full of
ignorance, and miserable, be said to be just another form of God?

6. Reconciliation of the Four Vaishnava Viewpoints

The Chaitanya school reconciles these seemingly disparate views of God's
relationship to the world by arguing that the Vedic scriptures testify
to God's acintya-shakti, "inconceivable powers." God is simultaneously
the cause of the world in every sense and yet distinct from and
transcendental to the world. The example given is of a spider and its
web. The web emanates from the spider's body, so the spider may be taken
as the ingredient cause of the web. But that does not make the spider
and the web one and the same. The spider is always a separate and
distinct entity from its web. Yet again, while the spider never is the
web, the existence of the web cannot be separated from the spider.

There is a further lesson to be learned from this example: while the
spider is clearly different from its web-creation, it nonetheless is
acutely conscious of every corner of it. In philosophical terms, we
could say the spider is transcendental to the web by its identity, yet
simultaneously immanent throughout the web by its knowledge. This is a
simple yet powerful demonstration of acintya-bhedabheda-tattva. Lord
Krishna, in Bhagavad-gita 9.4 and 5, says He pervades the whole universe
by His complete awareness of the spiritual and material energies that
make up the creation. Yet at the same time, in His identity as the
source of everything, He stands apart from the cosmic manifestation.

The web is compared to God's maya-shakti (power of illusion), which
emanates from the Real but is not real itself. "Not real" means that the
features of maya (the tri-guna, or three modes of material nature:
goodness, passion, and ignorance) are temporary. "Not real" does not
mean the material world does not exist. The essential ingredient (vastu)
of the world is real, because it is the energy of God. But the form
this energy takes at the time of cosmic creation is temporary. Therefore
the maya-shakti is said to be unreal. Reality is that which is eternal:
God and God's svarupa-shakti (spiritual energy). The temporal features
of the material world are manifestations of the maya-shakti, not of God
Himself. These features of maya bewilder the souls of this world, but
they cannot bewilder God. God appears within this material world as the
supreme person, yet He is not bound by this world, exactly as a spider
moving anywhere in its web-creation is not bound by it.

7. Sanatana-dharma

Brahman, the Absolute Truth, the goal of vedanta, may be achieved in two
ways. One way is by vedanta-darshan, or the philosophical comprehension
of the conclusion of the Vedas, as described previously. Another way is
by sanatana-dharma, the eternal religion of vedanta. Both darshan and
sanatana-dharma are taught in the Bhagavad-gita, spoken by Sri Krishna
to His disciple Arjuna 5000 years ago at Kuruksetra.

"After many births and deaths, he who is actually in knowledge
surrenders unto Me, knowing Me to be the cause of all causes and all
that is. Such a great soul is very rare."

Sanatana-dharma is explained in Bhagavad-gita 18.66. This verse is the culmination of the entire text:

sarva-dharman parityajya mam ekam saranam vraja aham tvam sarva-papebhyo
moksayisyami ma sucah "Abandon all varieties of religion and just
surrender unto Me. I shall deliver you from all sinful reactions. Do not
fear."

In both darshan and sanatana-dharma, surrender to Krishna is the goal,
because Krishna is the goal of the Vedas, as confirmed in Bhagavad-gita
15.15: vedais ca sarvair aham eva vedyo vedanta-krd veda-vid eva caham,
"By all the Vedas, I am to be known. Indeed, I am the compiler of
vedanta, and I am the knower of the Vedas."

What is the difference between religion (dharma) that is eternal
(sanatana) and religion that is not eternal? The noneternal religion,
which in Bhagavad-gita 18.66 Krishna asks us to give up, is of two
types: bhoga-dharma and tyaga-dharma.

Bhoga-dharma, the religion of work (karma) for sensual pleasure in this
life and the next, is summed up in Bhagavad-gita 2.42-43 thusly:

"Men of small knowledge are very much attached to the flowery words of
the Vedas, which recommend various fruitive activities for elevation to
heavenly planets, resultant good birth, power, and so forth. Being
desirous of sense gratification (bhoga) and opulent life (aisvarya),
they say that there is nothing more than this."

Tyaga-dharma, the religion of withdrawal from karma, is rejected by Lord Krishna in this verse:

"Not by merely abstaining from work can one achieve freedom from
reaction, nor by renunciation alone can one attain perfection."
(Bhagavad-gita 3.4)

Sanatana-dharma, the eternal religion, is bhakti-yoga, the yoga of
devotional service to Lord Krishna. Shunning both work for selfish
pleasure and the stoppage of all work, the bhaktiyogi works only for
Krishna's pleasure. Bhakti-yoga liberates the soul from entanglement in
the web of tri-guna (the three modes of material nature) and transfers
the liberated soul to Krishna. Krishna's transcendental personal form is
the source and basis of the impersonal Brahman effulgence
(brahmajyoti), which shines forever beyond the darkness of material
nature. This is all confirmed in Bhagavad-gita 14.26 and 27:

"One who engages in full devotional service, unfailing in all
circumstances, at once transcends the modes of material nature and thus
comes to the level of Brahman."

"And I am the basis of the impersonal Brahman, which is immortal,
imperishable and eternal and is the constitutional position of ultimate
happiness."

Sanatana-dharma is exemplified in the lives of the mahatmas, or great
souls. Their religious practices are described in Bhagavad-gita 9.14 and
15:

"O son of Prtha, those who are not deluded, the great souls, are under
the protection of the divine nature. They are fully engaged in
devotional service because they know Me as the Supreme Personality of
Godhead, original and inexhaustible."

"Always chanting My glories, endeavoring with great determination,
bowing down before Me, these great souls perpetually worship Me with
devotion."

Krishna spoke the Bhagavad-gita shortly before the beginning of the
Kali-yuga, the present age of darkness, sin, and quarrel. After Krishna
departed this world, mayavada philosophy became prominent. Because
mayavada philosophy denies that Krishna is the eternal, transcendental
Personality of Godhead, and because it distorts His teachings on
bhakti-yoga with impersonal speculation, it thwarts both the method and
goal of sanatana-dharma. Modern Hindus, confused by mayavada ideas,
think mundane politics and social work are the method of dharma. And
they think the goal of dharma is the impersonal jyoti (light). The
mayavadis claim the jyoti is the truth behind God's personal form. But
this claim is in direct opposition to Bhagavad-gita 14.27. Thus the path
of the mahatmas given in the Bhagavad-gita is lost in much of Hinduism
today.

Taking compassion upon the unfortunate, misguided souls of Kali-yuga,
Lord Krishna descended again, only 500 years ago, to show mankind by His
own example how to practice sanatana-dharma according to the
Bhagavad-gita. This incarnation of Krishna is the Golden Avatara, Sri
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. Lord Chaitanya accepted initiation from Isvara
Puri of the Madhva Sampradaya. From Madhva's school, Lord Chaitanya
accepted two principles: (1) opposition to and defeat of mayavada
philosophy, and (2) worship of the transcendental form of Lord Krishna
as the path of eternal religion. The first principle is darshan, and the
second is sanatana-dharma. These two principles are the philosophical
and religious foundation of the International Society for Krishna
Consciousness (ISKCON), established by His Divine Grace

A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada.

In Bhagavad-gita 4.2, Lord Krishna declares that the principles of
eternal religion are handed down via the guru-parampara (disciplic
succession). The parampara system protects eternal religious principles
from corruption by unauthorized teachers who, without following the
principles themselves, interpret the Bhagavad-gita through their
speculative opinions. The disciplic succession of Madhva and Sri
Chaitanya Mahaprabhu is known as the Brahma Sampradaya, because it
originates with Brahma, who received Vedic knowledge from Krishna at the
beginning of creation. Brahma's disciple is Narada, and Narada's
disciple is Vyasa, who composed the Vedanta-sutra. After Lord Chaitanya
accepted this sampradaya as His own, it was called the
Brahma-Madhva-Gaudiya Sampradaya. In our time, this disciplic succession
and its teachings of sanatana-dharma are represented to the whole world
by ISKCON. Following in the parampara tradition, members of ISKCON
refrain from adharma (irreligion) in the form of meat-eating, illicit
sex, gambling, and intoxication, and follow sanatana-dharma as shown by
the mahatmas.

8. The Avataras of Godhead

After explaining that eternal religious principles are handed down via
guru-parampara, Lord Krishna then told Arjuna that from time to time,
the system of disciplic succession breaks down. This is called dharmasya
glanih, the disruption of dharma. When dharma is disrupted, humanity's
very purpose is disrupted. The Vedic scriptures state, "Both animals and
men share the activities of eating, sleeping, mating and defending. But
the special capacity of the humans is that they are able to engage in
spiritual life (dharma). Without spiritual life, humans are no better
than animals." (Hitopadesa) In order to save humanity from the animalism
of irreligion, Lord Krishna says tadatmanam srjamy aham: "At that time I
descend Myself."

(B.g. 4.7)

When Sri Krishna descends from the world of spirit into the world of
matter, His appearance here is called avatara. The Sanskrit word avatara
is often rendered into English as "incarnation." It is wrong, however,
to think that Krishna incarnates in a body made of physical elements.
The seventh and eighth chapters of Bhagavad-gita distinguish at length
between the material nature (apara-prakrti), visible as the temporary
substances of earth, water, fire, air and ethereal space, and God's own
spiritual nature (para-prakrti), which is invisible (avyakta), eternal
(sanatana) and infallible (aksara). When the Lord descends, by His mercy
the invisible becomes visible. As Krishna states in B.g. 4.6, "I
descend by My own nature, incarnating in My form of spiritual energy"
(prakrtim svam adhisthaya sambhavamy atma-mayaya). In 4.9 He declares,
janma karma ca me divyam, "My appearance and activities are divine."
Only fools think Krishna takes birth as does an ordinary human being
(B.g. 9.11).

God has many incarnations. But of all of them, that form described in
Bhagavad-gita 11.50 as the most beautiful (saumya-vapu) is God's own
original form (svakam rupam). This is the eternal form of Krishna, the
all-charming lotus-eyed youth whose body is the shape of spiritual
ecstasy. The Srimad Bhagavata Purana confirms that Krishna is the
original form of Vishnu: ete camsa-kalah pumsah krishnas tu bhagavan
svayam indrari-vyakulam lokam mrdayanti yuge yuge, which means, "All of
the incarnations of Vishnu listed in the scriptures are expansions of
the Lord. Lord Sri Krishna is the original Personality of Godhead. All
avataras appear in the world whenever there is a disturbance created by
the atheists. The Lord incarnates to protect the theists."
(Srimad-Bhagavatam 1.3.28)

The Srimad-Bhagavatam provides us with the authorized list of scheduled
incarnations of Godhead, of whom the dasavatara (ten avataras) are
particularly celebrated. The ten are Matsya (the Lord's form of a
gigantic golden fish), Kurma (the turtle), Varaha (the boar), Sri
Nrsingha (half-man, half-lion), Parasurama (the hermit who wields an
ax), Vamana (a small brahmana boy), Sri Rama (the Lord of Ayodhya),
Baladeva (Lord Krishna's brother), Buddha (the sage who cheated the
atheists), and Kalki (who will depopulate the world of all degraded,
sinful men).

There are two broad categories of avataras. Some, like Sri Krishna, Sri
Rama and Sri Nrsingha, are Vishnu-tattva, direct forms of God Himself,
the source of all power. Others are individual souls (jiva-tattva) who
are empowered by the Lord in one or more of seven ways: with knowledge,
devotion, creative ability, personal service to God, rulership over the
material world, power to support planets, or power to destroy rogues and
miscreants. This second category of avatara is called shaktyavesa.
Included herein are Buddha, Christ and Muhammed.

The Mayavadis think that "form" necessarily means "limitation." God is
omnipresent, unlimited and therefore formless, they argue. When he
reveals His avatara form within this world, that form, being limited in
presence to a particular place and time, cannot be the real God. It is
only an indication of God. But in fact it is not God's form that is
limited. It is only the Mayavadis' conception of form that is limited,
because that conception is grossly physical. God's form is of the nature
of supreme consciousness. Being spiritual, it is called suksma, "most
subtle." There is no contradiction between the omnipresence of something
subtle and its having form. The most subtle material phenomena we can
perceive is sound. Sound may be formless (as noise) or it may have form
(as music). Because sound is subtle, its having form does not affect its
ability to pervade a huge building. Similarly, God's having form does
not affect His ability to pervade the entire universe. Since God's form
is finer than the finest material subtlety, it is completely
inappropriate for Mayavadis to compare His form to gross hunks of
matter.

Because they believe God's form is grossly physical, Mayavadis often
argue that any and all embodied creatures may be termed avataras. Any
number of "living gods" are being proclaimed within India and other
parts of the world today. Some of these gods are mystics, some are
charismatics, some are politicians, and some are sexual athletes. But
none of them are authorized by the Vedic scriptures. They represent only
the mistaken Mayavadi idea that the one formless unlimited Truth
appears in endless gross, physical human incarnations, and that you and
me and I and he are therefore all together God. And since each god has a
different idea of what dharma is, the final truth, according to
mayavada philosophy, is that the paths of all gods lead to the same
goal. This idea is as unenlightened as it is impractical.

When ordinary people proclaim themselves to be God, and that whatever
they are doing is Vedic dharma, that is dharmasya glanih, a disturbance
to eternal religious principles. Therefore Krishna came again, 500 years
ago, as the Golden Avatara, Sri Chaitanya Mahaprabhu. He established
the yuga-dharma, the correct form of sanatana-dharma for our time. Sri
Chaitanya's appearance was predicted in Srimad-Bhagavatam 11.5.32: "In
this Age of Kali, people who are endowed with sufficient intelligence
will worship the Lord, who is accompanied by His associates, by
congregational chanting of the holy names of God."

The Avatara of the Deity and the Holy Name

The transcendental vibration hare krishna, hare krishna, krishna
krishna, hare hare / hare rama, hare rama, rama rama, hare hare is the
avatara of the Lord in the form of the holy name (kali-kale nama-rupe
krishna-avatara, from Chaitanya-caritamrta Adi-lila 17.22). Anyone can
prove to his own satisfaction that the Lord and His name are not
different simply by chanting this spiritual sound constantly. The proof
is the transcendental bliss (kevala-ananda) that envelops the soul the
more the holy name is chanted. This higher taste renders insignificant
the taste for degraded material pleasures like illicit sex, meat-eating,
gambling and intoxication. Anarthopasamam saksad bhakti-yogam
adhoksaje: the eternal religion, or the yoga of pure devotion (bhakti)
to Krishna, is evinced by the disappearance of sinful habits (anarthas.)

As Krishna appears in the sound of His holy name, so also He appears
within the arca-avatara, His incarnation as the Deity worshiped in the
temple. The central focus of every ISKCON temple around the world is the
worship of Krishna's Deity form as represented in stone, metal, wood or
as painted pictures. Through ceremonial services (puja) conducted
according to Vedic tradition, the devotees fulfill the Lord's injunction
in Bhagavad-gita 9.27: "Whatever you do, whatever you eat, whatever you
offer or give away, and whatever austerities you perform --do that, O
son of Kunti, as an offering to Me." This puja purifies the minds and
senses of the devotees and connects them to Krishna in an attitude of
love.

Mayavadis decry service to the Deity as idol worship. They argue that
God is not present within the Deity, because He is everywhere. But if He
is everywhere, then why is He not within the Deity as well? Moisture is
also everywhere, even within the air. But when one needs a drink of
water, he cannot get it from the air. He must drink the water from where
water tangibly avails itself to be drunk: from a faucet, a well, or a
clear stream. Similarly, although God is everywhere, it is in His Deity
form that He makes Himself tangibly available for worship.

9. Liberation in Krishna Consciousness

"Back home, Back to Godhead" --what does it mean? It means the return of
our consciousness to Krishna. Consciousness is the symptom of the soul
and the reservoir of our desires. As conscious souls, each one of us is a
tiny aspect of Krishna's personal spiritual potency (see Bhagavad-gita
15.7). Just as Krishna is eternally a person, so are we. But now our
original personal nature is covered by Maya (illusion). Maya diverts
consciousness away from Krishna. The temporary forms of the material
world then become the objects of our consciousness and all its desires.
Thus prema (the soul's love for God) is perverted into kama (lust for
material sense gratification). As long we confuse lust for love, we must
take birth in this world again and again. For a devotee of Krishna, the
method of liberation from birth and death is the method of purifying
consciousness and desires until the ecstasy of pure Krishna
consciousness is achieved. As the word ecstasy indicates (Greek
ekstasis, "outside the body"), Krishna consciousness transports the soul
beyond identification with the material body.

All the great religions of mankind teach that this present life is meant
to cultivate the afterlife of the soul. Among the various sects within
Judaeo-Christianity, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, two paths of
cultivation can be discerned: 1) the path of elevation, and 2) the path
of salvation.

1) The elevationists aim for an elevated state of material happiness in
the afterlife. Their hope is to join their family and friends in the
celestial realm known as heaven in the Bible and svarga in the Vedas.
The Bhagavad-gita warns that although life in heaven is much longer than
on earth, it is not eternal: "When they have thus enjoyed vast heavenly
sense pleasure and the results of their pious activities are exhausted,
they return to this mortal planet again. Thus those who seek sense
enjoyment by adhering to the principles of elevation achieve only
repeated birth and death." (Bhagavad-gita 9.21)

2) Salvationists, on the other hand, aim to be saved from their
mortality. Buddhists, Mayavadi Hindu Vedantists, as well as
Judaeo-Christian and Islamic Sufi mystics, often speak of salvation as
the surrender of the mortal self to the eternal light that is Nirvana,
Brahman or God. Some speak of salvation as a state of unbroken prayerful
contemplation upon a personal deity. These are descriptions of
impersonal Brahman and Paramatma realization. Impersonal Brahman, as
explained in previous articles, is the formless effulgence of Lord
Krishna's personal form. Mystics and yogis who are able to negate their
minds' attachments to the world of material form may lose themselves
within this formless light. Paramatma is Krishna's form as the
Supersoul, who dwells within the hearts of all living beings as the
overseer and permitter (see Bhagavad-gita 13.23). Paramatma realization
is semi-personal, because the salvationist's relationship to the
Supersoul in the heart remains passive. More than wanting to serve God,
the salvationist wants to be saved from death and rebirth. Thus
impersonal Brahman and semi-personal Paramatma realization are
incomplete.

A famous verse in Srimad-Bhagavatam explains how complete realization of the Personality of Godhead is to be cultivated.

"Hearing and chanting about the transcendental holy name, form,
qualities, paraphernalia and pastimes of Lord Krishna, remembering them,
serving the lotus feet of the Lord, offering the Lord respectful
worship with sixteen types of paraphernalia, offering prayers to the
Lord, becoming His servant, considering the Lord one's best friend, and
surrendering everything unto Him (in other words, serving Him with the
body, mind and words) --these nine processes are accepted as pure
devotional service." (Srimad-Bhagavatam 7.5.23)

After the steady practice of these nine processes awakens the ecstasy of
love of Krishna in the devotee's heart, Krishna appears before the
devotee. At that time all the senses of the devotee (the eyes, nose,
ears, tongue, sense of touch) become the receptacles of the auspicious
qualities of Krishna: His supreme beauty, fragrance, melody,
youthfulness, tastefulness, munificence and mercy. The Lord reveals
first His beauty to the eyes of the devotee. Due to the sweetness of
that beauty, all the senses and the mind take on the quality of eyes.
From this the devotee swoons. To console the devotee, the Lord next
reveals His fragrance to the nostrils of the devotee, and by this, the
devotee's senses take on the quality of the nose in order to smell.
Again the devotee swoons in bliss. The Lord then reveals His sonorous
voice to the devotee's ears. All the senses become like ears to hear,
and for the third time the devotee faints. The Lord then mercifully
gives the touch of His lotus feet, His hands and His chest to the
devotee, and the devotee experiences the Lord's fresh youthfulness. To
those who love the Lord in the mood of servitude, He places His lotus
feet on their heads. To those in the mood of friendship, He grasps their
hands with His. To those in the mood of parental affection, with His
hand He wipes away their tears. Those in the conjugal mood He embraces,
touching them with His hands and chest. Then the devotee's senses all
take on the sense of touch and the devotee faints again. In this way,
the devotee attains his rasa (spiritual relationship) with Krishna.
There are five rasas: santa (passive awe and reverence); dasya
(servitude); sakhya (friendship); vatsalya (parenthood); and madhurya
(conjugal love). The most fortunate salvationists can attain only the
santa-rasa. The four higher rasas are reserved for Krishna's pure
devotees.

By flooding the senses with eternal nectar from the original, pure
source of pleasure --God Himself --love of Krishna completely liberates
the devotee from attraction to temporary material sense pleasures. Thus
the consciousness of the soul completely takes shelter of its original
position as an eternal associate of the Lord in the spiritual world. As
long as he or she still possesses a physical body, the fully Krishna
conscious devotee is called jivan-mukta, liberated while still within
the material world. When he or she gives up the physical body, the fully
Krishna conscious devotee remains forever with Krishna in the spiritual
world. This is videha-mukti, liberation that transcends the material
world altogether. According to the kind of rasa achieved, the soul in
liberation displays a spiritual form as Krishna's eternal servant,
friend, parent or conjugal lover. Just as our present material body
permits us to engage in karma (physical activities), so the spiritual
rasa-body permits us to engage in lila (Krishna's endlessly expanding
spiritual activities).

Real Meaning of Hindu is Indian subcontinent and its origin from the mouth of a common language speaker of Central Asia and India as per new theory. Because Hindu means “is in south” or a geographical area that falls in the south of central Asia, are Hindu Kush and Hindustan. Becouse Hindu is consisting of two words; ‘Hin’ and ‘Du’. It is ‘hin+du’.HIN means ‘down and DU means “is” or ‘south + is in’. So ‘Hindu’ (hin+du) means ‘is in south or ‘is in downside’. Because its origin was in central Asia, so is the Hindustan was the Hindu (southern) area of central Asia. And Hindu Kush was southern mountain of central Asia. The meaning Hindu ‘is in south or is in downside is or south Asia logically true.

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